COMMENCEMENT TRADITIONS AT AMERICAN UNIVERSITY

American University awarded its first degrees (two doctorates and one master’s degree) in 1916 at a commencement ceremony held in the university’s amphitheater. AU commencements have grown over the years as the university has become larger and more diverse. More than two thousand students from AU’s six schools and colleges—arts and sciences, business, communication, international service, law, and public affairs—participate in commencement ceremonies each year.

Past honorary degree recipients and commencement speakers include:

• U.S. presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and William J. Clinton
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• Nobel laureates Aung San Suu Kyi, Shimon Peres, and Elie Wiesel
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• international figures King Hussein, Queen Noor, and Alexander Dubcek
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• national leaders Charlene Barshefsky, Barbara Jordan, John Lewis, Ralph Nader, Paul Volcker, Robert Reich, and Andrew Young
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• Supreme Court justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sandra Day O’Connor
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• scholars Stephen J. Gould, John Hope Franklin, Henry Steele Commager, and Alfred Kazin
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• journalists David Broder, Walter Cronkite, Sam Donaldson, David Gregory, Charlayne Hunter-Gault, Ted Koppel, Diane Rehm, Carl Rowan and Tim Russert
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• performing artists Marian Anderson and Mstislav Rostropovich